Cries Of The Fallen
by T.J.98
Summary: Gale Hawthorne is fifty years old, and because of a terminal illness he will die in five more years. After the uprising, Gale turned bitter and alienated everybody. Now he would rather forget the awful things he did in the past. But he must answer for his transgressions, and when he does will he be able to make amends before it is too late?
1. Chapter 1:Gale Hawthorne

Gale and Katniss had no relationship. There is no doubt whatever about that. Gale moved to District 2, than to District 4, but never returned to District 12. Katniss, like most of the other people Gale knew before and during the war, had no idea what happened to Gale. For all she knew, he could be dead as a doornail.

It should be noted I have no idea, to my knowledge, what is particularly dead about a doornail. I might be inclined, myself, to regard a fired bullet or an exploded artillery shell as the deadest piece of metalworking in the trade. But there is ancestral wisdom in the simile; and it is not for my unsanctified hands to to disturb it, or Panem will surely crumble.

Was Gale alone? Of course he was! His younger brother Rory Hawthorne was the only person who wold even tolerate his presence, and it's been that way for I don't know how many years. Rory Hawthorne was his sole sibling, his sole immediate relative, and his sole friend. Even Rory only kept his older brother company out of more a sense of familial duty than actual affection.

But this leads back to the starting of origin. There is no doubt that Gale Hawthorne is alone, that must be understood for this story to have any significance. If Gale were not alone, than there would be nothing so set apart from the ordinary about him receiving a visit from someone in his past.

Gale Hawthorne seemed to carry a shadow over him, one that was growing for nearly four decades. No winter frost was colder than he was, and no summer sun could warm him. His heart was in effect frozen.

People certainly knew this, as nobody ever asked Gale Hawthorne the directions to a locality, nor did anyone ever inquire as to which hour of the day it was, and it seemed even the animals kept their distance from him.

But it is not like he cared. He did not mind that people avoided him, as he was loathe of any and all company. He did not mind that some people demanded his head, as he believed the actions of the past should be left there and that they ceased to matter.

Upon a time -just a day seemingly insignificant from days of the past- old Gale Hawthorne sat busy in his office. Like any other day, he was counting through the mail. He read one of the letters, one that he got from the hospital. It read that the test results were indeed confirmed, and he did have terminal cancer.

It was now that he heard a ringing of the phone from the hallway.

He shuffled to the home phone and picked up the line.

"Hello Gale, its Rory."

"What do you want." he growled.

"Just checking up on you."

"You bother me enough as it is."

"Surely you don't mean that."

"I do" said Gale, "Checking up on me! What right have you to be concerned with me? What reason are you concerned? Mind your own business, poor enough."

"What right do you have to be so dismal? Your rich enough."

Having no better answer, Gale simply grumbled.

"Don't be so down!"

"What else can I be?" returned Gale, "when I live in a nation of fools."

"Gale!" Pleaded Rory softly.

"Rory!" Returned Gale, "mind your own business, and let me mind mine."

"Please, I haven't seen you in person for years; come over to have dinner with us."

Gale laughed at this, the laugh erupting rough his whole body. This was the first time he laughed in half a decade.

"Why must you laugh at me? I was serious."

"Why did you get married?"

"Because I fell in love."

"Because you fell in love." Gale said this with unmasked contempt. "There's no such thing as love."

"Gale, this was never your reason before. Why now?"

"Goodbye."

"I don't ask anything of you; I don't want anything from you; why can't we be close like we used to be?"

"Goodbye."

"It makes me sad. I have never by my own knowledge said anything to

Before Gale could sit down to return to his paperwork, there came a knocking at the door. Two kindly and pleasant looking gentlemen stood at the door when Gale answered it. They carried books in their hands, and smiled.

"Have I the pleasure of addressing Mr. Hawthorne?"

"Yes, now who do I have the displeasure of addressing?"

"We are from the Victims of War Organization. As you know, many people on both sides were hurt in the war. Millions were left crippled by things like snare bombs and poison gas, and there are millions who have someone missing in their lives. Most of these struggle to support their families."

"Are there still prisons and jail houses."

"Yes, plenty of prisons."

"Are there still breadlines."

"Yes."

"There is still the Retired Soldier Administration and there is still Welfare?"

"Yes, both busy."

"Oh, good. You had me worried that they had somehow shut down and necessitated people to go around begging for money like a dog at a table."

"While both Administrations are doing their best, they are unable to reach everybody. We are working to raise funds for those who are still unable to make ends meet because of injuries accrued during wartime."

"Your wasting your time."

"You mean you won't help them?"

"I mean I want to be left alone. I am not about to give my hard earned money to help people crippled in a war that should be left in history books. The ones who fought for the rebels knew what they were getting into, and the ones who fought against them deserve what they got. In any case, it happened long enough ago that it no longer matters. They should just get a job."

"Many are unable to work."

"Than they should just die."

"I'm sorry you feel that way. Have a good day."

After they left, Gale slammed the door and returned to his office.


	2. Chapter 2:The Visitor

Gale sat on the sofa in his dusty and empty home. As he watched the screen of his television, a grimace arose on his face.

On the television was an old man in a white uniform. Like many other loyalists after the war, he left Panem and was taken to one of the corners of the Belgium colonial empire. While other nations at first wanted nothing to do with leftovers of the old regime, Belgium saw this as a great economic opportunity. This is how the majority of the surviving loyalist population agreed to indentured servitude in exchange for citizenship in and transportation to the Belgium colonial empire. This, combined with the habit of loyalists to stick together, resulted in peacekeepers becoming a culture similar to the ancient Cossacks who once roamed the steppe of what is now the Slavic Confederation.

The man on the television called for the prosecution of war criminals who fought on the side of the rebellion. One name that stood out to Gale was his own; he was being accused of crimes against humanity.

Gale growled and turned off the television.

He was not a war criminal. So what if he destroyed the Nut? And so what if he made snare bombs? It happened in the past and should be left there.

These things Gale Hawthorne thought to himself.

After deciding to skip dinner, Gale got ready for bed. He pulled off his clothes and dressed himself in his pajamas and nightcap.

It was raining and thundering outside, so Gale decided to light a fire in his fireplace. The fireplace was carved by the whaler who lived here long ago, and it was as ancient and rotted as the house was. Gale was not young anymore, and it had been so long since he hunted or even entered the woods that he did not remember how to do either of those anymore; but Gale could still light a fire.

Sitting in a chair, the fifty two year old man brooded over the fire, trying to recall memories of his youth, of a time when he crouched before similar fires in the untamed woods.

Gale grimaced at these thoughts.

After a while he nodded off, and allowed himself to slide into sleep.

Gale has no memory of falling asleep, but he did wake up. The fire was completely and thoroughly dead, the windows that were previously shut were now all wide open, the rain had been replaced with an icy and forceful wind, and Gale at first did not notice the man standing under the shadows of a corner of the room.

When the man stepped into view, Gale noticed him but could not believe what he saw. In fact, he refused to believe it.

But no matter how incredulous Gale was, the man was still standing before him. The man wore a uniform that looks like it once belonged to a peacekeeper, but instead of white it was black; almost as though it were dyed by ash and soot. The visor of his helmet shone like the dying flames of a dying fire, so the face of the man could not be seen. All he while, it looked as though the darkness of night itself was constantly over the man regardless of where he was.

"Who are you?"

The mans voice was cold and unfeeling, as he is only a shadow of the man he was while he was one of the living.

"I don't see why you care now; there were so many of us and you never cared before."

"You mean, I killed you?"

"I am not the first or the last person you killed; I am not even the closest person to you that you killed."

"I don't believe it. If you're real than you should be in the ground, not here!"

"Have you gotten so untrusting that your own senses are under suspicion?"

"I believe what my senses tell me, its just that right now they're lying. You're more a symptom of fever than anything else."

The peacekeeper stood up, standing high above Gale. The wind blew until it made a foul and inhuman shriek, and the man spoke with such thunder that it shook Gale from his swagger.

"I am here! Look upon me!"

The winds shook Gale with such fury that he cowered. "Please, stop. Why do you torment me?"

"I exist, I am here, and I was once alive! We were people who lived and laughed and loved: you will ignore us no longer!"

"Why are you here? What have I done to deserve this?"

At this, the shade began to laugh a cruel and cynical laugh. Once he finished, he exclaimed.

"You do not deserve this. In the years that you have degraded the world with your pathetic and destructive existence, you have not a single time proved worthy of what I bring you. You deserve to spend eternity in damnation's halls, drowning in a lake of all the blood you have spilled. What you are about to experience is by no definition of the word something you deserve."

Gale was frantic, pleading with anger and fear. "Then why are you hare?"

"I am here to show you how foolishly and wickedly you have wasted the opportunity that is life, so that you might make amends before the light within you grows cold."

"I don't want to. I have nothing to make amends for."

At this the shade again laughed his cynical laugh which filled the cavern-like halls of Hawthorne's District 4 manor.

With sarcasm, the shade replied. "If you believe that, than you will have no worry about following me."

Gale followed the shade down the hallway leading to the front door, asking as he went. "Where are you taking me?"

As the shade threw open the door, he turned back to Gale. Though his visor was oblique, Gale could sense that the shade was glaring with his cold lifeless eyes.

"The places I am taking you are places you have already been."


	3. Chapter 3:Peeta and Katniss

Gale Hawthorne followed the shade, he was aware that he could not see anything more than five feet away in any direction. Streets that were well known to him were not present.

"Are you happy with how your life turned out?"

Gale was taken aback by this.

"What kind of question is that? Of course-"

Gale could not finish the sentence, as he previously never thought about it. He had not been happy in so long that he no longer knew what it was to be happy or unhappy.

"When you were sixteen did you imagine that when you were fifty you would be alone, unwed, and disowned by two of your three siblings? Did you imagine that the only woman in your life would be the ones you saw at the brothel before you grew sick of it around your forties? Did you imagine you'd spend your twenty fifth birthday with a gun in your mouth, trying to dig up the courage to pull the trigger?"

Gale was angry at this remark, but could not call them lies. "Maybe my life wasn't perfect, but I was a fool for thinking I even needed a family."

"Lets see how some of your old friends are doing."

"What do you mean?"

The Peacekeeper grabbed Gale by the forearm, and with the shifting of the shadows they were in the home of Peeta Mellark and his beloved wife.

Katniss and Peeta were both in their fifties, but they did not look it. Nor could one tell from first glance that they fought in a war; reguardless of how the two Victors saw themselves at first (which was through a lens of mental breakdown), a combination of the best medical science Panem had (and Panem lead the world in medical science even then) left no physical scarring. Over the years, the mental and emotional scars faded; Katniss and Peeta were able to enjoy the lives that they fought hard for.

Peeta and Katniss were eating dinner in their home, with them were their five children and their seven grandchildren.

All five of their grandchildren had comfortable careers. Willow, the eldest child at age thirty one, was not only happily married herself but was also a moderately successful doctor. Rye, who was a year younger than his older sister, had a moderately successful career as a lawyer and as a husband. Jerry, who was named after his maternal grandfather, has lived for twenty five years and was able to be a wealthy businessman and get engaged during his spare time. Max, who was named after his paternal grandfather, is the same age as his twin brother Jerry but became a Captain in the Panem Navy and got married during his twenty five years. Emily, the youngest child at age twenty two, is a teacher in District 12.

As Katniss and Peeta's children and grandchildren prepared their dinner, Gale watched. He felt cheated out of the family he should have had. Yet paradoxically, he also felt that he did not want or need this.

Gale opened his mouth to speak, but the shade grasped his shoulder roughly. Instead of asking what the point in showing him this was, Gale simply said the following.

"I didn't know she had kids."

The shade replied, "Of course you didn't, you haven't spoken to each other in decades. Now just listen."

Peeta asked his son a question with a smile. "So Rye, how's being a lawyer?"

Rye replied with good humored teasing, "It's good; it may not be the Carib islands, but a peaceful office suits me."

Max laughed a little, "At least there are no Mosquitos in your office; at least I hope there are none."

This banter went on a little bit, but eventually they said grace. Once it was over they started eating and talking.

Gale was taken off guard by this. "I didn't know they converted. "

The shade gestured for him to listen.

After some more conversation, somehow a few of Peeta and Katniss's grandchildren kept pleading with their grandfather to tell them 'the story'. The fact that they don't elaborate suggests the whole family heard this story multiple times.

After feigning memory loss, Peeta complied.

"Well, okey. I'll tell the story."

The whole table became quiet with apprehension as they listened to the story.

"Well, once upon a time, when Rye and Willow were still babies, I was walking down the street to bring back groceries. Then, all of the sudden, I felt a momentum hit me in the back and fling me forward at extreme speeds. Within a few seconds, I went from walking on the street to impaled on someone's iron fence. I was hit by a car that was going way too fast. I was sure I was going to die, and all I could think about was my family. But my luck must have turned on while I was in the air because I wouldn't be here if that fence wasn't there to keep my head from hitting the ground, nor would I have been here if the iron point on the fence didn't just miss my heart, nor would I have been here if an empty ambulance wasn't driving by at that time, or if the hospital didn't have my blood type. I not only survived, but I made a full recovery and was out of the hospital in just three months."

Rye said simply, "divine intervention saved you."

Peeta replied, "My faith wasn't gained through sudden epiphany; Katniss and I were already thinking about it for a long time before that, it just sped it up."

Katniss said, "It also confirmed my assumption that you are the luckiest man on the Earth."

Peeta wrapped his arm around her, "I already figured that out when you agreed to marry me."

Peeta was not talking about the show they put on for a now defunct regime, he was talking about their real marriage. Five years after the fall of the Capitol, they got married. It was a small and simple wedding.

It also produced a big family.

Peeta and Katniss had a happy life. Since their kids supported them, they were able to retire early (though Peeta still works at the bakery because of how much he likes to). Their spare time is spent painting (though Katniss usually just watches her husband paint), hunting (Peeta, like his first and third son, is not good at hunting; he still likes to be in the woods and try), and enjoying themselves. Peeta and Katniss were very healthy for their age, and could both live for thirty or even forty more years.

As the Mellark family ate dinner and talked and laughed, Gale watched with bitterness. Though he had enough envy to turn his eyes green, he was too proud to admit it to the shade.

"I've seen enough, take me home."

"No. You've only just began to see what you need to."

"I said take me home!"

The shade grabbed Gale by the forearm, and they were taken away.

But they did not go home.


	4. Chapter 4:Rory Hawthorne

When Gale and the Shade landed, they were inside the home of Rory Hawthorne. It was a quiet District 7 home, and it was peaceful. Rory was eating dinner with his wife, his son was not there because he grew up and joined the army.

His wife asked him a question when he seemed glum. "Honey, is something wrong?"

His response came after hesitation. "I talked to Gale today."

His concerned wife muttered. "I don't know why you bother with him. He's not going to change."

Rory chuckled, but his eyes betrayed his real feelings. "You sound just like Posy and Vick."

Unlike Rory, Gale's other two siblings have long since ceased to waste energy attempting to stir him from his bitterness. Even Rory does not actually think Gale will change; he is simply fulfilling the duty of a sibling.

"But why do you bother with him?"

Rory sighed with melancholy. "He's my brother. I am obligated to check up on him and keep in touch. I'll do so with the hope he'll lighten up, even though I know he won't. It could also be because I pity him; going through life the way he does is not a good way to do it."

"Why is he so bitter?"

"If I knew I'd tell you. Must be because of something that happened during the war?"

"We all suffered during the war; that's not an excuse for him to mope his life away."

"I hope he doesn't. Until the day he dies, I'll still hold out hope that I can see him again. I haven't seen him in person for over a decade, and it is not easy to imagine what he must look like based on a picture."

"You must miss him."

"I do."

While Gale was watching this conversation, he sighed glumly. He wondered how Rory would react if he knew his older brother will die in five years.

The Shade turned to look at Gale, asking him. "Is there something wrong?"

"No ... its just ... I wish I had told Rory something during my last conversation with him."

"We should go now. There is still much to do."

When Gale said nothing, the Shade grabbed his forearm and the surroundings shifted once again.


	5. Chapter 5:Annie

Gale and the Peacekeeper Shade landed on the ground, they were now in a Victor's Mansion in District 4. Outside was a warm costal rain which buffeted against the windows. At the door stood a forty year old man in the uniform of a Captain of the Panem Navy; he was holding an umbrella.

The man looked remarkably like his father, having blond hair and bright eyes. Annie opened the door and was happy to see that the person waiting there was her son.

"Finn!"

"Mother!"

The man embraced his mother in a hug. After said hug, she invited him inside. Unannounced to them, Gale and the Peacekeeper followed them inside.

"Mother, the Pacific really is wonderful; I have a lot of stories to tell you."

The shade said to Gale, "I bet you didn't know Annie had a son." Gale realized that he had not only not kept in touch, he did not even think about the people who played such an important role in his life.

Annie led her son to the fireplace, and gestured for him to sit down in the vacant chair. She sat down in the chair next to it, and they talked. Annie asked her son several question: how was he doing, was he taking care of himself, was he maintaining good hygiene, did he keep himself out of danger, and did he enjoy being in the Navy.

Gale looked how happy Annie appeared in her interaction with her son, and wondered how it was possible for her to not have anger and hate in her. While it is true that Annie was hurt while in the games, and while in prison, it is also true that she has a loving son and a good life.

Gale remembered his mother, and felt an emptiness. He had not been a good son in the last years of his mothers life, and until now he did not feel bad about the time he spent away from her.

The shade turned to Gale and said. "We should go to see the next person."


	6. Chapter 6:Mr Hawthorne

Gale and the Shade were in front of a house. It was a small and crudely built house, and it's walls were coated on the outside with the coal that blows on the wind. It was lathe December, and the snow that blew in the coal-choked wind was grey and white.

If Gale did not realize where he was, he did once he saw a man walking down the street towards the house. The man had black hair and tanned skin like Gale once had in his youth; in fact the man bore a distinct resemblance to Gale.

The man's name was Mr. Hawthorne.

"That's my father. I was a boy here."

The Shade, upon hearing Gale's soft whispers, simply nodded.

They walked inside, and in the kitchen the watched as Mr. Hawthorne sat down at the kitchen table next to a dark haired boy in a gawky youth if fourteen.

"Hi there son. Im back from work."

"Oh good, I missed you."

"Well, you don't need to; I'll always be with you."

"Where's your mother?"

"She's asleep; my sister is tiring her out."

"She won't be as tiring once she's born. But when your mother wakes up, tell her to look in the kitchen: I brought Posies home."

"If the baby is a girl, can we name her Posy?"

"Maybe. I do like that name."

Mr. Hawthorne looked first up in thought, than down at his son's paperwork.

"What are you working on?"

"The teacher is making us do math homework. I can't get it, and he said if I don't do my homework he'll hit me with a switch."

"Well, let's see what we can do about this. See these? These are called variables. You use them when you don't know what the number is."

"You're really smart."

"Well, I learned math from my dad."

"What's this mean?"

"This one is a multiplication symbol, that means you multiply the numbers."

Step by step, Mr. Hawthorne explained the homework to his son Gale. He had a comforting tenderness in his voice, and it reassured young Gale.

Old Gale, watching this, felt his heart thumping for the first time in three asked the Shade a question.

"When was this?"

The Shade's reply shook Gale out of his good mood and horrified him.

"This was in late December of the year sixty nine."

"You mean this was only a week before he died?"

The Shade replied coldly, "I don't see why you care; it happened so long ago that it doesn't matter anymore."

"How can you say that; Dad was a loving person with a family that depended on him. When he died people missed him. It will always matter to those who knew and loved and were loved by him. He is a real person."

When Gale rebutted, he realized halfway through that the Shade simply threw his own sentiment back at him.

The Shade coldly called Gale out on his hypocrisy.

"Some example he set for you. I can assure you of one thing: if your father saw what you became he would be glad he died."

At this, Gale again became angry. But this time his anger was mixed with a little fear.

"That's not true! Take it back!"

"Compare how your father lived to how you live. Do you think he would be proud of some of your choices?"

"Why wouldn't he?!"

"I'll show you."

Again, the Peacekeeper Shade grabbed Gale's forearm, and the surroundings shifted again.


	7. Chapter 7:Male Tribute

They are in the crowded district square of District 12, on a day that passes into memory so many years ago.

All across Panem, people gather to wait in the hope that they or their loved ones are not the ones chosen for probable death.

Little children fumble with the hands of their older siblings, hoping they are not reaped.

Adults watch in earnest and undisguised fear, listening to see if the child being named is their own.

Anyone with a religious faith (one that they secretly kept within their heart's confines so as to avoid martyrdom) already offered up their morning prayers to plead for protection.

In districts, names are chosen and many are reaped.

This year, there are seven volunteers.

Gale and the Peacekeeper Shade watched from the platform as the events unfolded. The former was beginning to grimace because he remembered what happened this day.

The latter nudged him on the shoulder. "Today's not about you. Quit being a self-obsessed prick and pay attention to the different reactions."

Gale, while wanting to come up with a retort of some type, was not able to in time. The reaping had already began.

The person pulling the names out of the raffle tubs did so in a mood that did not have the solemness of such an event.

"Primrose Everdeen."

As the name was selected, Peacekeepers marched over to collect the tribute.

Doing as the Peacekeeper Shade told him to, Gale Hawthorne looked at the reaction of these peacekeepers; he was surprised by what he saw. He expected the peacekeepers to be cold and callous, or to be gleeful at sending a child t her death. However, he saw that many peacekeepers were either desperately trying to hide their emotions or were not hiding the deep sympathy on their faces. Gale never even considered that Darius and Purnia were not the only peacekeepers who lived and laughed and loved. In essence, Gale never considered that the others were humans who probably were not born with malice in their hearts.

In any case, he hears next what he expects to hear and yet is still surprised by.

"Stop! I volunteer! I volunteer as tribute."

Gale and the Peacekeeper Shade watched as Katniss Everdeen walked up to the platform. Despite the fact that they both know how this will end, Gale still flinches as he watches the events unfold.

"Why are you showing me this?"

The Shade did not answer, at least not in a vocal way. Instead, with his long strides, he pulled Gale through the doors of the Justice Building just before it was closing shut. They were able to slip into the visitors rooms.

However, the shade was not leading Gale where he thought he was. At least, not without a detour.

"You're going the wrong way. Katniss is in that room."

"She'll still be there when we get back, dont worry. These are shadows; events that have long passed into the fog of memories."

They were inside the male tribute room.

Gale was angry that he was being made to watch the person whom he envied so immensely. This envy stemmed from the fact that the man in this room would go on to not only go on to obtain the hand in marriage of the woman Gale felt he was entitled to, but would also go on to have a family and be happy.

Just as Gale was about to shout in green-eyed anger, he saw what the Shade wanted to snow him.

Upon the floor in the abandoned room sat a young man. His face was buried in the upward palms of his hands as he sobbed. The sobs sounded like the sounds of an animal that had been mortally wounded and was near death.

The blond haired boy believed that this would be how it ended. He had no reason to suspect anything other than that he was in the last few pages of a life story characterized with violence and parental abuse which go all the way back to the time he was born.

As Gale watched the blond haired boy wail in lamentation of the darkness that was closing around him, he could feel a portion of the pain that the boy felt.

A worse feeling yet, Gale felt shame. Shame that he suffered much less in comparison and yet never thought about the suffering of even people he knew.

"I ... I never realized what he went through."

"You mean you never realized how self obsessed you have been all these years. But it would do you good to remember that this is not even the start of it."

"Don't need to remind me."

"The fact that I am even here is indisputable evidence that I do need to remind you."

Gale opened his mouth to rebut this, but no words could come out or even form. After failing twice, the Shade just gestured for him to watch.

Though only a few minutes passed, it felt like hours to Gale.

"When is his mother coming?"

"She's already did."

"She left him like this?"

"She told him that he was going to die alone and that nobody would miss him.

This shocks Gale, who had a good mother. He remembers his mother's funeral, and felt shame that he had not seen his own mother in the last years of her life. He also felt shame that he did not pay any attention to his siblings at the funeral. It is with fear and shame that Gale asks the next question.

"Is nobody really going to visit him?"

The Shade does not answer, or at least not with words. Instead, he lets what happens next answer the question for him.

A man walked into the room. Upon seeing his son sobbing on the ground, the man knelt down beside him and with a gentle voice he provided comfort. Comfort which the boy's mother, who was nowhere in sight, denied him on every single occasion where it was needed.

"It's okey. It's okey. Daddy's here for you."

Mr. Mellark held his sobbing son close to him with one hand, and with the other he gently cracked the head of his son. Mr. Mellark made a cooing sound to calm his son.

There are sometimes situations when one feels helpless and alone like a young child. It is in these times that the loving warmth of a parent is needed most.

The Shade addressed Gale. "Does this evoke sympathy in you?"

"Yes."

"Why? It did not make you feel sympathy all those years ago when it happened."

Gale was about to deny what the Shade said, but he realized that he would be lying if he said it was not true.

When Gale watched Peeta on reaping day, he only felt disgust with this person whom he'd never met and knew nothing about. Gale considered Peeta pathetic and weak, without even considering how he would react upon being reaped.

When Gale was silent, the Shade asked another question.

"Was it because you did not know him and so he meant nothing to you, or was it because you did not know that he spent every day of his life being beaten and abused by his mother whenever his father was not around to witness and stop it?"

Gale again was silent. Eventually he could force out an answer. "I ... I guess both."

"You had no idea how lucky you are to have had what you did, but you are too blind and too self-absorbed to see it."

After a while, they walked to the next room.

The shade was right, as Katniss just recently entered the room.


	8. Chapter 8:The Other Tributes

Gale and the Peacekeeper Shade entered the visiting room for the female tribute. There they watched the shadows of the past.

Gale watched his shadow in the room as it showed concern for Katniss and told her to survive. Gale felt a long silenced tenderness in his heart when his past hunger Katniss.

The Peacekeeper Shade spoke. "You cared about her well being once upon a time."

Gale nodded in agreement, than he realized that the Shade was talking in past tense and the agreement was shattered. "What the hell do you mean by 'once upon a time'?"

"I think you know."

"No I don't. I always cared about Katniss's well being!"

"Is that so?"

"Yes, every second!"

The Peacekeeper Shade laughed his cynical laugh. His laughter bellowed through the entire Justice Building and carried the strength of thunder.

"Let's see of what you say is true."

The Peacekeeper Shade grabs Gale's arm, and this time they are transported to the district square.

There is a large crowd of people staring at large television screens.

On the screen, a young woman with tan skin and dark hair is treating to a barely conscious blond haired boy. The boy is delirious from fever, but the few times he can look up he looks at the woman with a fondness that would make one think he was looking at an angelic celestial. In turn, the woman was gingerly doting over him and cleaning out his wounds with a tenderness that betrays feelings for him even she is unaware of.

In the crowd below, people are feeling a kaleidoscope of reactions.

The father of the boy stares intently at the screen and hopes against hope that his blond sunshine of joy makes a recovery. He dares not think of what would happen should his condition worsen.

Likewise, a blond haired girl named Delly also watches the screen and hopes that her neighbor and surrogate brother does not perish.

However, one hark haired boy in the audience grimaced at what he saw. This boy watched with jealousy, envy, greed, and those were not even the worst of his feelings. The worst one was that deep down, he wanted the boy on the screen to die. He wanted this so that there would be no other competitors for the girl's heart.

The Shade did not need to tell Gale this, as he saw and remembered it when he saw the face of his past. Gale was horrified to see what he was.

"Was I really that jealous?"

"Yes, you really were that jealous. You did not care that Peeta was a human being who also had problems and hardships, nor did you care that your supposed love was still at risk of dying. But trust me, it gets worse."

When he said that, the shade took Gale to another scene of his past turning into a green eyed monster. And another scene, and another. It was enough to drill into Gale's head that he was guilty of the worst kind of greed.

The Shade spoke. "Well Gale, so far what appears to be missing in your heart?"

This caught Gale off guard; he expected a lecture on how he cared more about being spurned than about his friend being in harms way.

A confused expression was not the answer the Shade was looking for. Though his visor of burning embers obscured his face, Gale could tell he was rolling his eyes.

"Let me clarify; what are you thinking when the tributes die?"

As The Shade saw this, Gale was on the screen as a blond haired man by the name of Cato was ripped limb from limb by the angry teeth of enraged genetic abominations.

"What? Him? He's a Career."

"... And that makes him less human in your eyes?"

"Yes. He actually jumped at a chance to murder children, he and his buddies got what they had coming to them."

"O really?"

Gale was becoming more and more enraged, and his voice broke into a shout.

"Yes really! I'm glad he suffered! He and all his career friends! I hate them all!"

Just as Gale barked out these horrid words, their location changed.

They were standing near a brook on a warm summers day, watching as two blond haired boys of about eight years were playing soldier with with wooden practice swords. They were using their swords the way their grandfather had taught them, yet paradoxically each imagined that he was a brave knight fighting a fearsome dragon.

Gale could hear them laughing and smiling, and he instinctively remembered playing hunter and the fox with his younger siblings.

Once the two boys were done, they sat down at the brook and wetted their feet in the cool water.

"Cato, when we grow up we are going to be the best warriors ever."

"Yes we are Lyes, we are going to be brave and people will right stories about us. You will be Headpeacekeeper, and you'll get to lead cavalry charges like Grandpa did."

"You'll be a heroic Career, like Brutus or Gloss. You will win a crown, and everyone will be proud of you, and your name will live on forever."

"I hope so."

"I know we will."

"You think so?"

"Yes."

"And because of me and the other Careers, nobody who doesn't want to go to the games won't have to. That's why the Careers on the TV are always proud when the leave; they are leaving on their own terms."

When Gale was silent, The Shade facilitated discussion.

"Run out of wise-ass remarks?"

"That's not what I expected."

"You didn't expect that some Careers were motivated by altruism, or you didn't expect that Careers had childhoods?"

Gale bitterly spat back, "This doesn't change anything. I don't care what they say their motives were, it is still no excuse for being sadistic pricks!"

"You are talking about Clove trying to torture Katniss."

"Yes, I am."

This time their setting changed to a very nice house. One which belongs to a Career Family.

Gale and The Shade are standing outside one of the windows. Though the house is soundproofed and the window closed, the scene was altered to allow Gale to hear what was going on inside.

"You fucking whore! I feed and house you and this is how you repay me!"

The voice of a girl, a voice which Gale recognized as a younger version of Clove's, pleaded for mercy.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to get second place in the competition. Please don't hurt me."

"You're gonna get it now."

"Please, don't! I promise it won't happen again."

"That's right, it won't."

"No! No! Please don't!"

Gale's heart was retching at the sound of this. It was mortifying him. He turned to The Shade and begged.

"Is nobody going to stop him?!"

The Shade replied with neither malice nor snark. His voice had only the sadness of a man who knows what it is to die and to suffer.

"Her mother looks the other way to this. Her only other relative is her uncle. He lives far away, and quite frankly he has no idea whatsoever that this type of thing goes on at all. She was too afraid to tell him, and her parents obviously didn't."

Gale was being driven to mania by the screams and sobs of this girl whom he did not know but who was suffering none the less.

"Please, help her. We have to do something."

"Neither of us can ever change the past. These are just shades of what once was."

"Make it stop! Help her!"

The Shade echoed Gale's words in a way that made him regret them. "She's a Career, not a human like you. And I thought you were glad she suffered?"

"I SAID MAKE IT STOP!"

Gale could not take it any more. He curled into a ball on the ground and shoved the palms of his hands into his ears so hard that his head hurt. Despite this, the screams only got louder.

Then the shade changed their place, and the screams faced away.


	9. Chapter 9:The Survivor

The Shade took Gale to a quiet clearing in e forest just outside a District 12, a peaceful and calm place.

Gale caught his breath, panting until his gasps returned to normal breathing. When he looked around, he felt noticeably calm. This was a good spot, one that he used to hunt with his father in. He reached behind his back, only to remember with dismay that his bow and quiver of arrows was left behind accidentally when he left district 2 after a disastrous stint as temporary mayor. Gale also remembered that he was an old man, and that he has not hunted in years and would not remember how even if he had his bow with him.

Gale just stretched his feet out as he would have when he was a child.

The peace of the clearing was short lived, as the distant sound of bombs dropping and the smell of burning coal carried by wind both became apparent to Gale. He sat upright, a look of fear in him. In the sky above where District 12 would be, both Gale and the Shade could see unmarked hovercrafts dropping their payloads over the population center. A cocktail of screams ranging all ages could be heard as the fire cut down the panicked masses of District 12. The wails of dying anguish could be heard even out here in the clearing.

The Shade turned to Gale and asked him a question in a calm voice. "Horrific? Isn't it?"

Gale is shaking with terror, unable to even speak. So The Shade takes this as an affirmative answer.

"Very few people survive something as gruesome as what you survived. A decant human being would never wish such suffering on even their worst enemies, especially if they themselves know the pain it causes."

Gale detected hostility in The Shades voice, and was about to ask what he mean by that. However, before he could, he saw shadows of the past spill out of the trees and into the clearing.

Their whole bodies were covered in soot and scratched from scurrying through the patch in the fence.

A younger Gale was the first to enter the clearing, his eyes wild with fright. Behind him was a blond haired girl named Delly's, holding her younger brother in her arms. Behind her were three hundred other District 12 civilians. Old people who were close enough to the escape when it happened, young children who did not yet realize that their parents perished, men and women who can not find their families, and many others as well.

When they sat down in the clearing, everyone was nervous.

"What are going to do? I can't find my parents." Exclaimed Delly, who's baby brother could not stop crying.

Gale replied in between his panting, "I'll ... go back ... and look for others."

Prim, who was covered in soot, replied. "Ok, but be careful."

Gale knew what his younger self would find there; ash and death. It was already too late to find anyone.

The Shade looked at Gale and spoke, "These people would have been dead, but you saved them."

Gale nodded.

The Shade continued. "At least you did that."

"What do you mean 'at least'?".

"I'll show you."

And with that, they left the clearing behind.


	10. Chapter 10:The War Criminal

When Gale and The Shade landed, they were not in any natural place. They were within the concrete tunnels of District 13. More specifically, in a military conference room.

"When you came here you felt this was a haven, no?"

Gale did not deny this, "We were shelterless, they fed and clothed us."

"You can't be faulted for not being aware of their hidden evil, no more than a child can be faulted for talking to a stranger he meets in the park."

The Shade was referencing the horrific atrocities President Coin committed against her own people. District 13 was a prison, as nobody was allowed to leave. Anyone who acted out or could not meet the standards of the local ideology were shot, and anyone who who was deemed genetically unfit were put to death as part of a cruel eugenics program (the use of the word cruel may be redundant, as there has never been a eugenics program that was not known to have been grossly inhumane). Thankfully, President Coin's policies died with her. Four months before The Mockingjay banished her from the land of the living, Coin's designated successor and adopted son General Hans Buria was also assassinated during his occupation of District 4. As such, a general from the Grand Army of the Republic was chosen to manage District 13, and he was horrified of what he saw there.

Investigations were launched, but so many papers were burned by Coin's underlings that there was too little evidence to arrest more than a few people. While the people of District 13 were more than happy to provide testimonies against the Garrison Lieutenants and the Secret Police and the Floor Managers, there are still many warcrimes and crimes against humanity that have still not come to light.

Gale did not think about this too much. All he knew was that, apart from the former loyalists who now called themselves White Émigré, nobody denounced him or accused him of atrocities.

However, Gale did not want to think about this. "They weren't that bad."

The Shade replied, making Gale angry. "They're responsible for the destruction of a District 12."

"That's a lie! District 12 was destroyed by peacekeeper scum like you!"

The Shade corrected him. "The hovercrafts which bombed District 12 were flown by secret operatives. Yes, they were technically peacekeepers, but it is possible for more than one person to hold blame for something. District 13's leadership knew a full week in advance that the Capitol wanted to destroy District 12, and they stood by and did nothing."

Gale did not like to think that rebels could be to blame for the death his friends and neighbors, because that would mean the war was not as black and white as he is comfortable believing.

"Shut up."

"While your neighbors burned alive, the rebel hovercraft fleet waited in the hanger deck and did nothing."

"Shut up.

"And one of the survivors made bombs for them."

"I said shut up!"

"Well, if you don't want to hear it from me, you can hear it from someone you might recognize."

Into the conference room walked young Gale Hawthorne. He was wearing the grey uniform of a District 13 officer, and behind him was a corporal.

"Alright, tell President Coin what you told me."

Young Gale goes on to explain his plan. "When I was working with Beetee, I came up with an idea for a bomb. Basically, I it is set to explode twice. The first one is only strong enough to injure anyone nearby-"

President Coin sighs in frustration, "I already told my weapons developers 'no nonlethal weapons'. This is a war, and POWs are just mouths to feed. Unless you have something better, stop wasting my time."

"You didn't let me explain what the second explosion was for. While the first one will only injure the enemy, the second will kill him as well as any medics who try to rescue them."

Coin's expression changed, shifting from boredom to interest. Young Gale was able to see this in her eyes, and he smirked at how clever he was.

"Your bomb kills medics?"

"No loose ends. Nobody to fix up the peacekeepers. Without medics, the peacekeepers will die of their wounds and can't return to battle."

"I like the way you think. We'll begun production of these bombs immediately."

Seeing that Gale was unaffected by this, The Shade spoke with unhidden hostility.

"These bombs would go on kill millions of people on the battlefield."

"You mean millions of peacekeepers."

Though The Shade still wore a helmet which obstructed Gale's view of his face, Gale could easily tell that The Shade had a look of disgust on his face.

"Millions of _people_. Your snare bombs killed rebels too, and both sides agree that your bombs were the worst aspect of the war."

"It's war. War is hell, so why should you or anyone else be upset if I wasn't willing to play nice? They are enemies after all, and I was just leveling the playing field."

"War may be a difficult experience to undergo, but that is still no excuse for throwing away basic human morality. If you stoop to the level of your enemies, look for ways to maximize the death toll, than you are no better than they are."

"Honor doesn't win wars. And even if it did, it still doesn't apply to Peacekeepers. The aren't real people, they're mindless killing machines."

"Was Darius a mindless killing machine? What about Purnia?"

"That's different. They weren't _really_ peacekeepers."

"They trained for two years like any other peacekeeper, and when they graduated they felt proud to be Peacekeepers. You only knew them after they spent years living in District 12. If they were stationed somewhere else, they would have been another faceless peacekeeper who you would love to mow down."

Gale was looking for some scathing comeback to make, any at all. However, he could not find any. His mouth was open, but no words came out.

"Lets take a look at what your snare bombs can do."

They both transported to a battlefield in District 1. There was combat all around as Peacekeepers and loyalist militiamen fought against District 13 troops and local rebels. There was one particular peacekeeper who Gale and The Shade paid attention to.

"See him?"

"He's just another peacekeeper. Quite frankly, I hope he dies."

"Would you still feel that way if I told you he was Purnia's childhood friend?"

The mention of Purnia made Gale's eyes widen in surprise.

"But-"

"He became a peacekeeper for the same reason Purnia did, and he was stationed in District 1. He's not concerned about politics, he is just trying to survive and protect the people here."

"Protect them from who?"

"There were a few rebels who were willing to commit atrocities against loyalists, even if those loyalists were women and children."

"Why?"

"They're loyalists, Capitol supporters, against the revolution. During the war this would be enough reason for you to kill them."

Gale did not say anything, he just watched as the peacekeeper ran to take cover behind an alleyway.

When he got there, he saw a rebel medic pumping on the chest of an unconscious rebel. The medic looked up at the peacekeeper and became horrified.

Gale cringed, expecting the Peacekeeper to behave the way he assumed all peacekeepers behaved. This is not what happened.

"I'm not gonna kill you. You have enough to worry about."

The peacekeeper walked past the unarmed rebel medic, leaving the alleyway behind. The medic looked at him for a moment, not vocalizing anything but with his eyes saying 'thank you'.

Gale was befuddled.

The Shade's voice was dripping with bitter sarcasm. "Now why did he do that? The medic he spared is just going to fix up more rebels."

"How can you say that!? The medics are only trying to help people."

"And the peacekeeper medics aren't'?"

Before Gale can reply, they follow the Peacekeeper into an abandoned warehouse. He walks across cautiously, but he does not notice it until it is too late.

A bomb hidden in a shadow blows up, knocking him to the floor and leaving him bloody and injured. Purnia's childhood friend tried to push himself into a crawling position, but fell back onto his stomach.

Gale surprised himself by being concerned for the man. "Someone's going to help him, right?"

The Shade nodded towards the entrance to the warehouse, and they both could see the rescuer. He was a boy no older than twelve years. Gale could not help but think that this child reminded him of Rory. He did not know why; this child did not look like Rory in any way. But the resemblance could not be shaken off.

The child saw the peacekeeper bleeding on the ground. "Don't worry, I'll help carry you to the other good guys."

"Ww ... wait ... don't ..."

However, the warning came too late. As soon as the child reached him, the second more powerful explosion was triggered.

When the smoke cleared, both of them were was shaking horrifically, unable to even breathe.

Their bodies were indistinguishable, blood and ogre were everywhere. Limbs were strewn all across the floor of the warehouse where once was a man and a child.

Gale wanted The Shade to place a hand on his shoulder and tell him everything was going to be alright, but The Shade only echoed his words back at him with utter disgust in the person he was addressing.

"No loose ends. Nobody to fix up the peacekeepers."

Gale felt like vomiting, like screaming, like shooting himself, like doing all these things and more.

Gale felt horrified.


	11. Chapter 11:The Selfish Suitor

After being shown twenty five more examples of how barbaric his snare bombs were, Gale was taken to a the District 2 woods.

Gale was hyperventilating, his geriatric lungs pumping in an attempt to supply energy to his reaction and horror.

"Please! No more, No more! I can not bare to watch anymore of this brutality!"

The Shade was ready with an answer, "Then maybe you shouldn't have committed it."

Gale's demeanor changed drastically from when he first met The Shade. His proud and stubborn face was now sunken and pallor with terror over what he saw. Though Gale was only fifty years old, the things he saw made him feel a hundred. His eyes were widened and bloodshot, and his hands were trembling.

"I ... I didn't know."

"That's not even the worst part."

Gale swallowed, as he did not want to know what was to come if _that_ was not the worst of it.

Still disheveled mentally from the gauntlet, he was somehow able to realize his surroundings.

"W- where are we?"

"We are in the woods outside District 2. You'll remember it as the place where you had only enemies."

Gale had not stepped foot in District 2 for over three decades, having been driven out after a brief tenure as temporary mayor. The people there hated him and his guts, sending him death threats and leaving burning piles of excrement on his lawn. Anyone who saw him on the street was as likely as not to react by lobbing anything from insults to trash to garbage at him. It got to the point where he had to walk with bodyguards everywhere he went, and his younger siblings had to be homeschooled (they were able to avoid being beaten up by their peers, but only by lying and giving false surnames).

Then his career went from bad to worse, and the Prisoners Of War in Camp Mockingjay mutinied and a hostage situation broke out. President Paylor herself had to come done to negotiate the situation, and that she was able to prevent bloodshed is in and of itself a miracle. The new constitution of the Panem Republic was framed, and with it the Amendments of Free Speech, Free Worship, Free Expression, and the mandates of Amnesty and free travel. When elections came along, Gale received not a single vote; those who fought for the loyalists hated him and supported a crippled Peacekeeper Veteran named Martin, and those who fought for the uprising threw their support behind a Career Victor named Lyme. His political career in shambles, Gale and his family left.

After Gale saw what how reprehensible the snare bombs were, Gale could at least understand why they would hate him. Though he still kept trying to tell himself that they were not right to hate him. Because it is war, and sometimes these things are necessary, right? Right?

Gale's thoughts were interrupted when he saw Katniss walk into the woods holding hands with his younger self.

Neither he nor The Shade where this was going.

Very soon Katniss and Gale were wrapped in each others arms and making out passionately, the former's back pressed against a tree. Gale got a chance to read her thoughts in this moment and could see what he suspected on that night so long ago: she was thinking of Peeta.

When Gale watched himself, he could taste bile in his throat for a worse reason; it is clear to any outside observer that Katniss is no mental state to give consent. If he continues he will be taking advantage of his friend in her moment of weakness. Combined with how greedy he looked in the act, it was not hard for Gale to feel disgust in himself.

Gale whispers in shame, "Good god! What kind of creep am I?"

The Shade's response consists of holding up his hand, motioning for Gale to continue watching.

After a minute which feels like a century, Gale pulls away from Katniss.

Old Gale exhaled audibly. He was relieved that no matter how many bad things he did, Date Rape was never one of those things.

"What's going on in your head?"

"I don't know."

"Then it's like kissing someone who's drunk. It doesn't count."

Old Gale nodded in agreement; if they kept kissing than they would have done more, and (like with a drunk girl) it would not count as consensual.

"How do you know? Have you kissed some one who's drunk?"

"No, but it's not hard to imagine."

"I didn't say that. You know, you were only twelve when we met. And a real pain besides. I did have a life outside of hunting with you."

"Who did you kiss? And where?"

"Too many to remember. Behind the school, on the slag heap, you name it."

The Shade quipped cynically, "Real classy, Gale. And back then you didn't even figure out you could _pay_ girls to do that."

Old Gale muttered, "shut up."

"Though you were thinking of Katniss-"

"I said shut up."

Not hearing the observers, Katniss continued talking to young Gale.

"So when did I become so special? When they carted me off to the Capitol?"

"No. About six months before that. Right after New Year's. We were in the Hob, eating some slop of Greasy Sae's. And Darius was teasing you about trading a rabbit for one of his kisses. And I realized...I minded."

The Shade interjected with his usual snark. "Jealousy is so romantic."

The conversation between Katniss and Young Gale continued.

"Darius was just joking around."

The Shade added on, "And even if really was sharing his bed, it wouldn't be your business. You weren't in a relationship with her yet, and she isn't an Avox you can order around."

Gale could not think of anything to say in response to this, so he just kept watching.

"Probably. Although you'd be the last to figure out if he wasn't. Take Peeta. Take me. Or even Finnick. I was starting to worry he had his eye on you, but he seems back on track now."

The Shade commented. "Finnick is old enough to be her father, and had his heart not remained firmly set on Annie he would still have seen that for an adult to lay with someone that young would be unorthodox. But you probably didn't consider that; as far as you were concerned Finnick and Darius were rivals who needed to back off."

Gale could not deny that this was how self centered his mindset was.

"I'll admit I was selfish. But at least I never hurt her."

The Shade corrected him, "I wouldn't be so sure."


	12. Chapter 12: Prim's Murderer

They were in the Capitol, on the steps of the Presidential Palace. From here they could see the palace's front yard, which was packed heavily with Capitol Children. Children of ages ranging from newborns to sixteen year olds. Some were panicking, some were trying to convince themselves that everything would be fine, some were trying to distract themselves.

Beyond that they could see a beleaguered group of peacekeepers defending the City Circle, barley enough to form a brigade. These Peacekeepers looked like a mix of various divisions; some bore the golden armor of the Capitol Guard, some bore standard peacekeeper uniforms, some were missing helmets, some were missing fingers or eyes. Most of the Peacekeepers took up position at the last line of defense. However, a few who stood amongst the the civilian throng beyond the line of defense were stationed to keep them calm.

The Shade need not say anything, as Gale already knew what was about to happen.

Rebel soldiers advanced down the streets and upon the rooftop, firing into the crowd indiscriminately. All around him, he can see as people are shot and fall on the ground dead.

Those civilians unlucky enough to be in the City Circle were either killed or scared off.

Then it happened.

Hovercrafts materialized overhead, dropping their insidious payloads upon the children below.

As the silver parachutes fell to the children, Gale felt the pit of his stomach knot up with apprehension.

The children rushed to the parcels, expecting them to be care packages. They trusted in these packages to be their salvation. They believed that these small packages would somehow save them from the oncoming calamity.

When the packages exploded, great fireballs erupted through the yard, engulfing everyone present.

The vast majority of the children there were critically injured, those that weren't were killed. Those lucky enough to be unharmed would not remain so for long.

The children lay lying on the ground, bloodied and withering in agony. Screams and wails mingled with gunfire, the artillery shells, and the crying of babies in an orchestra from the foulest and darkest depths of human torment.

Braving it all, people rushed through to aid the children. Medics both peacekeeper and rebel rushed through into the courtyard. With them came some civilians who held medical doctorates relevant to this crisis. The last line of defense did nothing to stop these medics, and none of the rebels there took advantage of this to fire upon the distracted peacekeepers; both sides knew that there was something more important.

Two stood out to Gale in this moment: one of them was a blond haired youth in a District 13 army uniform, the same man who a few hours earlier ventured into the streets to provide a distraction necessary for his friends to press forward. He no longer had the grenade he brought with him. With no concern for his own life, he rushed forward like a knight of chivalric legends long forgotten. His goal to help save the children from their injuries.

The second person Gale recognized was Primrose Everdeen. She was wearing the uniform of a District 13 medic, and rushing to tend to the wounded alongside several other District 13 medics.

At that moment, Gale wanted to scream. He wanted to scream for them to go no further to run away and get cover as fast as they can. However, no sound would emit from his mouth as he stands frozen with fear.

The second explosion erupted throughout the entire yard and spilled into the City Circle.

The sadistic flames gobbled up everything and everyone in its path, roasting most of them alive. It was so unexpected that almost nobody had more time than a split second to react to the last tragedy in a seemingly endless parade of suffering.

Children covered their heads, hugged the earth, held each other close, and sat dumbfounded. Medics attending the wounded either got knocked off their feet or they threw themselves over their patients in an act of sacrifice. The blond haired man likewise rushed over and used his body to shield a wounded toddler; this child's life was saved by this act.

The flames tossed Primrose Everdeen onto the ground, ripping through her and causing her heart to stop.

The few medics who remained began to scurry to treat the great host of wounded and dying.

Gale and the Shade watched all the aftermath, watching as a medic dragged Prim's limp corpse and placed it in the line of corpses.

Gale, upon seeing this, began convulsing uncontrollably with a whole spectrum of lamentation. He lost his balance and had to hold onto his knees to prevent himself from falling over.

He could not bare to see Prim like this, cold and unmoving. Prim was supposed to be full of life and happiness, learning how to mend maladies, playing with Rory, cheering everyone up. She should not be cold and unmoving; it was unnatural.

She should not be dead.

It was not only that. Gale could not bare to look at Prim as all he could see was that he failed her. He made a promise he would keep her safe from exactly this, and he broke it.

Gale breathed slow and pained breaths, each one felt as though it could rip him apart. And Gale would be thankful if it did.

In Gale's mind, he could hear the words of The Shade repeated, the words adjusted to fit the current nightmare.

_She exists. She is here. She was once alive, she once lived and laughed and loved. And so did the other children._

He whispered so softly that nobody but him could hear. "I killed her ... She's dead because of me ..."

It took all Gale had left in him not to shatter into trillions of pieces at the pang.

And it was in this moment that The Shade took Gale one last time to see the sight of his greatest failure, his most profane evil. Now Gale would see his Darkest Sin.


	13. Chapter 13:The Mass Murderer

The Shade brought Gale to one more place. The place of his darkest sin.

First they were in a room, listening the the raving of a madman bent on making the world suffer. Gale and The Shade, along with nearly everyone else on the room, was speechless by what Young Gale proposed.

"That's it: trap the enemy inside, cut off from supplies. Make it impossible for them to send out their hovercraft."

Gale tried internally repeating his stance on this, repeating over and over again that it is war and war is hell and he couldn't afford to play nice with the enemy. However, he had no conviction in his internal voice and it was clear he was just trying to fool himself to avoid facing the truth of the situation. Now he could avoid the truth no longer, as the excuses he repeated to himself ringed so hollow they made him sick.

Boggs, his face twisted into a frown by the pit in his stomach, replied. Boggs was distressed because his District 13 upbringing made him disliking of tight spaces.

"You risk killing everyone inside. Look at the ventilation system. It's rudimentary at best. Nothing like what we have in Thirteen. It depends entirely on pumping in air from the mountainsides. Block those vents and you'll suffocate whoever is trapped."

Beetee, hoping to set up a compromise, proposed what he mistakenly thought was a solution. "They could still escape through the train tunnel to the square."

Young Gale made his intentions clear: he wants blood."Not if we blow it up."

Gale could not get these words out of his head, see simple words which turned so many lives upside down. _Not if we blow it up._

"The majority of the workers are citizens from Two." Beetee spoke with his calculating neutrality, yet inside Gale and The Shade could see that Beetee was not happy about it.

Gale's temper was high at this time, his eyes wild as the fire that scorched District 12. "So what? We'll never be able to trust them again!"

Lyme, a native of District 2, voiced her concern. She knew the people in the Nut, she knew how they thought and why they felt they should be there. Even if she disagreed with these views, she still understood the thinking behind them. Lyme knew that they were people like her; she could not fault them for opposing her as she understood that the side you choose in a civil war was the hardest decision you would have to make in your whole life.

"They should at least have a chance to surrender-"

Gale cut her off with an evil passion.

"Well, that's a luxury we weren't given when they fire-bombed Twelve, but you're all so much cozier with the Capitol here."

Old Gale whispered weak and hollow, "It was war, we had no choice..."

The Shade did not respond to him, as he knew Gale did not even believe his own rationalizations.

The death warrant of District 2 still rang in Gale's ears.

_Not if we blow it up._

The room was silent, the full emotion of this act seeping too deep. Easiest to notice was Lyme's seething; the gears in her head calculating as to whether or not to pull out her gun and shoot Gale in the head. She opts to play it safe, but Gale could just tell that for the rest of her life Lyme regretted not taking this action.

"We watched children burn to death and there was nothing we could do!"

A nagging voice in the back of Gale's head told him something else. It told him that there were children in the Nut too.

_Not if we blow it up._

Katniss attempts to placate Gale, to quell his anger and prevent yet another tragedy. Her efforts are for naught.

"Gale, the Nut's an old mine. It'd be like causing a massive coal mining accident."

At that moment, Gale thought of his father. Thinking of how he would react if he heard Gale's plan. He knew his father would not approve of it, that it would not be within the morality his father taught him.

_Not if we blow it up._

Young Gale, blinded by his own arrogance and bloodlust, missed the point completely.

"But not so quick as the one that killed our fathers. Is that everyone's problem? That our enemies might have a few hours to reflect on the fact that they're dying, instead of just being blown to bits?"

Gale's blood froze completely in this utterance. What at the time seemed like a valid point now looked to Gale like the raving of a madman.

"Dear God, was I really that twisted?"

The Shade finally addressed Gale. His cold dead voice was void of any emotion, as though he looked into Gale's soul and found nothing there. "Yes."

Now they were in the District square, watching as the rebel hovercrafts flew over the Nut. They stayed just long enough to see those hovercrafts drop their insidious payloads on the avalanche paths. As the rocks rolled and tumbled down the mountain, they covered everything whole.

They did not stay to watch this, as they were taken inside of the Nut itself.

They were in a mess hall, one which had been converted into temperary living quarters for loyalist refugees. Pregnant women sit and talk with their friends and relatives, mothers nurse their young babes, old men describe the Dark Days experiences of themselves or their fathers, cripples sit helplessly and count their luck that they escaped the war, young children run playfully after each other through the maze of people. There were a few peacekeepers watching over them all, sometimes comforting a child that walks up to him and asks about the war.

In an instant the ceiling was caving in. Rock and cement and metal descended down, upon the helpless people below.

Gale was forced to watch as the debris crushed all of them;man, woman, child and baby. Their screams were deafening, a woeful canopy of desperate death sounds and called out names of loved ones and the blood curdling crunches of bone and flesh being smashed.

Next The Shade took Gale to a hallway in The Nut. The walls cracked and stone dust flooded the area. Once again, Gale had to watch as children and civilians and peacekeepers all died in agony. They clutched at their throats, falling onto the ground. Some curled into fetal position and waited for the end, some were attempted to crawl out of a desire to live, some forced on gas masks only to realize that they did nothing. One particular heart wrenching case was a young woman who looked to be in her twenties, pumping on the chest of her son in a vain attempt to surrender her life to save his. She continued this until her own lungs were empty and she suffocated, collapsing dead next to her child.

Gale is taken next to see the hospital, a place filled with the ill and the wounded. There the horror of it is unimaginable. As electrical wires are broken and oxygen tanks overturned, great fires break out and consume the patients and their families. Some attempt to escape only to be incapacitated by the fall from the hospital bed, some can only scream feral howls of pain as the flames engulf them. Worst of all were the children, many of whom did not know how to escape. Gale watched children burn to death and there was nothing he could do.

Next Gale was shown the train terminal. People clamored into the train cars, knowing that their lives depended on it. Some of the hallways leading into the terminal were blocked off by debris, so ever-present was the wailing of those trapped just beyond salvation. Men, woman, peacekeepers, and civilians, all piled into the trains and crammed it full beyond capacity.

_They could still escape through the train tunnel to the square._

__Not if we blow it up.__

Next they landed in the District Square, a few seconds before Katniss was shot. Once the bullet hit her, a large riot broke out amongst the survivors. The survivors, civilian and peacekeeper, began thrashing at each other in a panic. Hitting, kicking, clawing, they were in a mindless frenzy. Occasionally, a rebel soldier would fire into the mob, felling those there indiscriminately. In the end, many of the survivors would be injured and some even dead.

After that, Gale was taken by The Shade to see the one of the bunk rooms, and then the one of the practice ranges, and so forth. On and on, Gale was shown every room and every single hallway in the Nut. No death was glossed over, as no human life is unimportant. As Gale watched all of this unfold, his horror rose and rose until it was all he could to to contain himself. Eventually this too failed, and Gale's resolve was broken. He was engulfed by despair, despair which he caused.

_What have I done? These were human beings, just trying to get by. They had families, children, spouses, loved ones._

_Not if we blow it up._

When they finally finished, they were once again in the the e first mess hall they went to. There was rubble and debris all around where once was people. However, now it was dark and cold and empty. Nobody dwelled in these ruins, save for the shades of the past for whom it is their final resting place. The only sound that could be heard was the weeping of Gale Hawthorne.

Gale was broken, every ounce of the old fire which was in him was redirected at himself. He could not even stand, and was on his knees. Tears were streaming down Gale's face and he was shaking profusely.

"Oh God! Oh God! I killed them! They're dead and its my fault!"

In The Shade's dead voice, there was no pity.

"You finally see what your arrogance and your bloodlust has cost the world. These people, many of whom were guilty only of wanted to keep their families safe, are dead. You sinned, and they gave the price. I was just one of countless people who perished here; I was not the most important, nor the first to be killed by your hands, nor the last."

"What I did was wrong, I know that. Please, give me a chance and I promise I will make this all right."

"Its too late, there is not a dammed thing you can do to make this right. Even if you spent every year after the war devoted to repairing the damage you caused, it will never reverse the avalanche that buried the nut alive. It will never undetonate the bombs you designed, or raise Primrose Everdeen from the grave. These people you murdered can never be brought back to life. "

Gale realized this was true, and fell completely onto the ground. He was now prostrate, and sobbing so loudly and horribly that his lungs were in pain.

The Shade continued, "In life, people have choices. The biggest choice, the culmination of all the other choices you make, is the impact you have on the world. Many would like to think their choices made the world a better place. You chose to be a source of pain and woe, of suffering and tears. You chose to commit genocide, to murder each and every last innocent soul in the Nut."

"I'm sorry! I'm a butcher and a monster and I'm sorry! I should never have done any of this, and it is all my fault. I failed my parents, I failed Katniss, and I failed as a human. Please don't leave me like this; I don't want to be evil anymore!"

However, the Shade gave no answer. Gale was alone.

In the silence of the cavern, Gale's whimper made a soft sound. "I'm sorry ..."


	14. Chapter 14: Rory's Older Brother

When Gale awoke in his chair in front of the fireplace, The Shade did not follow him there.

The hearth still had a fireplace, rain still batted against the window, and Gale was still alive.

"I'm alive," he whispered with amazement, "I don't have to be evil anymore. I can still change!"

Gale shuffled to the shower as fast as he could; though he had five years left, he did not want to waste a second of them. The anticipation Gale felt when he showered himself had not subsided when he got out of the shower to shave, nor when he dressed himself, nor when he purchased a short notice train ticket to District 7.

Ever since the fall of Coriolanus Snow, the Panem Republic experienced a renaissance of travel and commerce as the Nation's Doors opened to the International Community for the first time. This lead to the emergence of airline travel, flying people across the world in hovercraft and in the aircraft of foreign nations. However, train travel still enjoyed use and relevance in this new age.

When Gale purchased a ticket, the man at the station did not notice him. Gale dressed inconspicuously, so he just looked like any other old man. Gale hoped his brother would recognize him.

While Gale spent the day riding the train, he had time to reflect on what he has been through. It seemed beyond fathom that the revelations he experienced could have been contained in just a few hours.

When Rory Hawthorne woke up this morning, he was not expecting this day to be any different than any other day. However, a knock on the door would soon prove his expectations wrong.

"Rory, can you get the door?"

"Sure."

Rory walked from the kitchen to the door, where he unlocked it to see who it was. As he walked, he thought to himself that whoever was at the door had better not a salesman or a peddler.

When Rory opened the door, it took him a second for his brain to register the man at the door. Rory had not seen Gale in decades, and had no idea what he might look like. But once he did register the man at the door, Rory was befuddled.

"Gale?"

"Rory."

After the introduction, Rory ran up to hug his brother. Despite the fact that Gale was taken off guard by this, he still hugged Rory back. It felt good to hug his brother, to feel loved.

After hugging his brother for the first time in decades, the words began to tumble out of Gale's mouth.

"Rory, you're my brother and I always have and always will love you. I'm sorry I've been a bad brother these past years. I'm sorry I didn't visit you and I'm sorry I never tried to talk to you when Mom died and-"

"Gale, don't worry; I'm not mad at you about anything. I'm just happy to finally see you again."

When Gale was silent for a moment, Rory added, "Would you like to come inside? I'm sure my family would like to meet you. You can join us for dinner."

Gale thought that sounded nice, nicer than anything else. But it had been so long since he felt anything that it scared him a bit.

"I really don't want to impose-"

"Nonsense, you won't be imposing at all. My son's on his way to the Hellenistic Restaurant to get take out, I can just tell him what you want to order and we can have dinner."

Gale nodded, and followed Rory into his house.

Inside, Gale sat down and ate dinner with his younger brother's family. Rory's wife was at first wary of Gale, but he could understand that as he saw how his bitterness made his brother' life poorer. Still, she was not openly hostile.

Gale also got to meet his nephew. The man was a fully grown Major in the Panem Republican Army, visiting home after being away. He was polite enough, and Gale felt that Rory did a good job raising a son.

Gale knows that it is too late for him to have a son, but Gale felt that he would have made a bad father anyway.

Still, talking with Rory and seeing him face to face, Gale felt happier than he felt in years.

It was a good day, but now Gale has to leave.

"Gale, are you sure you don't want to stay for a bit?"

"I would love nothing more, but I have something very important to do."

"Oh, well good luck."

Something about the way Rory said that made Gale nervous. "Hey, Rory?"

"Yes?"

"You would love me no matter what? Right?"

"Of course I would Gale. You're my brother, I love you, and nothing will ever change that."

"Nothing?"

Rory began to get suspicious. "Nothing. Gale, you can be honest with me, are you in trouble? If you need money or a lawyer, I'm more than glad to help you out."

Gale's mind was somewhere else, so his response was short. "Oh, oh, nothing like that. Just, you'll see later on."

_I hope Rory will still love me after he learns about what a monster I am. Did he see that news broadcast yesterday? _

Gale did not ask his brother this. Instead, he simply walked to the bus stop which would take him to the train station.

As he walked, his brother called after him. "Goodnight."

Gale responded over his shoulder. "Goodnight."


	15. Chapter 15:The Confessor

The Justice Hall was a building constructed to house the judiciary branch of Panem. Like many others, this is one of the new government branches formed by President Paylor after the Uprising of the Mockingjay. Its main job is to manage the courtrooms of the nation.

Today, however, it will be the sight of a war criminal's confession.

Gale Hawthorne sits in the defendants chair, a stoic and empty expression on his face. From atop his high position, the Judge began the court procedure.

"Gale Hawthorne, you stand accused of War Profiteering, War Crimes, Crimes Against Humanity, and Genocide. How do you plead?"

Gale looked up, so that he whole world could see his face.

"I plead guilty to all charges."

The intentional omission of the word 'not' saved the court room months of data to sift through. Now it was strait to the sentencing.

"Gale Hawthorne, you have confessed to charges of War Profiteering, War Crimes, Crimes Against Humanity, and Genocide against the people of District 2. In most situations this would be punishable by death. However, because you came forward on your own free will, the situation calls for adjustment. Gale Hawthorne, you have been sentenced to lifetime imprisonment with no possibility for parole or pardon."

Gale let out a silent sigh. He knew that this was a lighter sentence than he deserved. He suspected that his sentence would have been worse if someone found out without his confessing, and that it would have been better if he admitted to what he did immediately after the war.

The judge continued. "Have you anything to say for yourself?"

Gale knew exactly what to say. He hoped everyone was watching this on television.

"Roughly thirty years ago, I made the biggest mistakes of my life. Blinded by hatred and bigotry, I orchestrated a genocide. Early in the war I made bombs which were designed to take advantage of human compassion and to kill medics and noncombatants, the same bombs whI he were used in the Capitol. If I had not made the bombs, Primrose Everdeen and all the other children would still be alive.

However, blinded and evil, I was still not content. I wanted to kill more people. When we were at the Nut, I proposed a plan which was designed to bring about the highest death toll. Katniss, Lyme, Boggs, and everyone else in the room with a shred of human decency opposed my plan, and I am sure that if I had kept my mouth shut than we could have found another way and many of those who perished would still be alive.

The most pathetic part is that I myself know the horrors of mass murder, having survived the destruction of District 12. This however does not excuse my actions, but in fact they make what I did even worse. I of all people should have known better, should have known what destruction I would be causing. I _did_ know better, but in my unquenchable thirst for vengeance I simply did not care.

I betrayed the ideas of the uprising, I turned my back on the morals my parents raised me with, and I was not there for Katniss when she needed me most. I am not a role model, I am not a rebel hero, I am a monster and a murderer. I am not asking anyone to forgive me, as quite frankly I do not deserve to be forgiven. The guilt of what I did will weigh on my heart until my last breath, so even I will not forgive myself. I am asking humanity to learn from me. Do not repeat my mistakes. If anyone watching this loses everything and embarks on a quest for revenge, do not allow yourself a willingness to use any means necessary. If you want to rid the world of monsters, you will only fail if you let yourself become one. I beg everyone not to follow in the path I have chosen, as humanity can not survive the repetition of my actions."

After Gale finished his speech, the bailiff lead him out of the courtroom in chains.

He was loaded past a crowd of onlookers and onto a prisoners truck to be taken to prison. As he walked past the crowd, he looked amongst the audience for a Peacekeeper in a Black uniform. Though he could not see The Shade anywhere, he still felt his presence.

Gale wondered how the various people he knew would react to his confession. He did not try testing the waters with Rory, despite being heavily tempted to. He knew that Rory would either disown him utterly, or attempt to get him a lawyer. Gale knew that he only had a brief window of opportunity to confess before his cowardice took over, so he could not afford any doubt. He just hoped that Rory's assurance still applied.

At the police station, Gale was visited by a man he had never seen before. The man obviously had a District 2 appearance, with blue eyes and white clothing.

"Your Gale Hawthorne."

"Do I know you?"

The man's voice carried no emotion, so it was as though he was talking about someone else. "No, but I feel I should admit how I know you. I was just five when the war happened. My parents took me to the Acroplis to keep me safe. When it collapsed, I and my seventeen year old sister were able to escape. We were sent to a POW camp, and my sister was raped and murdered by one of the guards. I tried to carry on, and eventually I went to District 4 to look for work. When I saw you there, I knew who you were. At first I did nothing, than I began to have nightmares. Then I started following you around."

"You were plotting to kill me?" There was no ounce of accusation in Gale's voice, it is almost as if he was asking about the whether.

The man just nodded.

"Why didn't you then?"

"I saw you confess, admit guilt. You looked remorseful."

Gale knew that had The Shade not confronted him, this man would have. If he called Gale out, he would have probably would have tried to justify his horrific atrocities. The man would probably have shot Gale, and likely been welcomed by the White Emigre as the last sane man.

Gale was taken to Gamemaker Island, a prison on the western coast of Panem which is dated to the Pre-Collapse Era. Originally called Alcatraz (which is still officially the name of the prison and island), it earned the nickname Gamemaker Island as it was where the Panem Republic sent those supporters of the old regime who were guilty of a crime but not deemed deserving of execution. Despite the name, this is also where rebel war criminals were sent.

Gale was processed and sent to his cell. It was a plain cell, but compared to the hellhole he saw when he rescued Peeta he considered this cell extremely ideal. It had a bed, a desk with a computer and a chair, a toilet, and a few shelves for personal belongings. Out the window Gale had a view of the bay and the overgrown ruins on the other side.

He got used to life in prison. Than a visitor came.

The guard told him he was being visited, and soon enough Rory stepped into the room.

They talked, and Gale was relieved to know his brother still loved him.

It had been so long since Gale felt love.


	16. Epilogue: The Prisoner

And so Gale Hawthorne spent the remainder of his life behind the prison bars of Gamemaker Island. His brother Rory visited him every major holiday of the year, and every day they sent each other a letter. "Rory, thank you for not giving up on me" is something Gale would say to Rory at the end of each letter he sent, and would indeed be Gale Hawthorne's last words.

Gale's letters resulted in Vick and Posy also coming with Rory to visit him, and slowly he was able to rebuild his relationship with his siblings. In fact, through his letters Gale was even able to reconcile with Katniss and Peeta. While they did not visit him, and he would never be Katniss's friend the way he was before, the letter he received made it clear they were willing to make peace with him. Of this, Gale's heart was slightly eased. However, nothing but the release of death and the hope of repentance could bring him full peace: for the rest of his life Gale's transgressions hung over his head like a cloud.

From prison, Gale wrote his memoir. He wrote it to disabuse those who would seek revenge in the way he sought it. The first coup was sent to a former POW who became a human rights activist.

Gale Hawthorne never for the rest of his days was visited by The Shade. His job complete, The Shade returned to the Dwelling of the Blessed to be with the other peacekeepers who gave their lives believing they were in the side of right.

And now the Story of Gale Hawthorne is ended.


	17. Afterwords

**Authors Notes**

* * *

And thus he story ends.

* * *

**Acknowledgements:**

I would like to thank ForFutureRefrence for commenting on and following this story. I would like to thank Marines 1-1 for sending me messages detailing his thoughts on this story. And I would like to thank Annalan728, Bingo the Cat, Cassandrashere, Emmagalante29, Ryden20, TLWtlw, breezie914, and isra22 of marking this story as one of their favorites. I would also like to thank anyone and everyone who followed or commented on or favorited this story now or in the future.

* * *

**Reasons for writing this story:**

I wanted to show that Gale's actions are inexcusable. While war is indeed unpleasant, its participants should still have basic honor and human decency. If you are fighting, and especially if it is for a good intentioned cause, than you have to have morals. If you allow yourself to become just as bad or worse than your enemies, than that defeats the purpose. Gale's case is worst because he didn't commit his atrocities because he had to, he did those horrible things because he wanted to. He wanted revenge, and this drove him to genocide.

Gale's actions violate the Geneva Conventions and the Nuremberg principals. While those two documents may not exist in the Hinger Games world, they are followed today. That means if Gale lived in modern times his actions would land him in the defendants seat of a warcrime tribunal.

However, I came to realize that even a monster can still repent and change his ways for the better. This meant that Gale would probably feel guilty for his actions if he knew what damage they caused.

* * *

Well, that about wraps it up.


End file.
